Flora Blumenberg

My wife, Flora Blumenberg, nee Finci and I married in 1938. I took this photo in Herceg Novi, Montenegro, on our honeymoon. Flora is still alive and together we share our memories of the past. A friend of mine, Laszlo Ernest helped me find work in Belgrade with a dentist named Jancsi Horvat. Because he was unable to conduct his research in our country, he closed his practice and went to Germany. I worked as his assistant. During that time I went to the Jewish cafeteria where I met my wife, a law student named Flora Finci. She was born in Bijeljina [today Bosnia and Herzegovina] in 1913. Flora had a lot of brothers and sisters who were older than she was. It was her father's third marriage because both of his two previous wives died. Flora had a wonderful stepmother who took care of her as if she was her own daughter. Her stepmother didn't have her own children so she accepted her as her own. I don't remember a lot about her childhood. By the time she was born her father was already really poor and life wasn't easy. At that time a Jewish girl couldn't get married without a dowry. Her father had a daughter and was in a new marriage with Flora's stepmother; he had to support all of these people and have something to live off. I don't remember much about her education; I know about the period when she was in Belgrade, when we met. Flora had two sisters who didn't return from the war and a brother who had been in captivity and did return. Bijeljina was a Muslim town and after the war not one Jew remained there. They destroyed the synagogue. When her brother, who was very religious, returned from captivity he committed suicide as a result of the stress and negative influences of war. Out of all these sisters and brothers she was the only one to survive. We married in Kutina in 1938. Her father died before our wedding. We had a wedding under a chuppah, but not in the synagogue. The chuppah was erected in our garden. Two rabbis married us: one was Andrija, my stepfather's son, and the other was my stepfather. We had our first child, Vladislav, or Vlada, in 1940 and after that I joined the army. My wife remained with the child in Belgrade.